www.treasured-tresses.com

Visit the website for all your hair needs. x
http://www.treasured-tresses.com

Nicki Minaj Shows Her Natural Hair (PHOTOS)

To all Nicki Minaj fans she has given us another insight into her natural hair. As we know Nicki has constant wig changes  Some which look nice and some which are straight horrendous!  Back in October 2012 Nicki Minaj showed us her long natural tresses and we were impressed.

Nicki Minaj recently has toned things down by showing a more natural side, and it’s very rare that fans get to see the real Nicki , but she is letting us closer and closer.

Nicki’s Long Natural Hair

Nicki Minaj tweeted out the photo with hashtags that read: #LongHairDontCare #HangTime #ImaWearItOutWhenItTouchesMyASS.”

We’ll be waiting for the day she decides to ditch the wigs all together and rocks her natural style.

Mid Week Wash Day

I LOVE washing my hair.
It’s one of the things I’ve grown to adore and look forward to whilst being a natural.
I wash my hair for any and every reason nowadays lol … Be it a bad day at work or can’t be bothered to comb out my braid out.

The weekday washes are the best!
I feel like such a rebel because washing your hair on any day that is not Saturday or Sunday for a black girl/woman is a stigmatised taboo.
It is not something most people do, whether they are natural or relaxed, wear weaves or braids.

I am so happy that personally I have got to a stage where I am comfortable with my hair that I can do what I want, when I want, wherever I want.

That liberating feeling is one I never want to lose.

When’s your wash day ? Do u stick to just the weekend or do u rebel and do weekday washes like me
Let me know ..

Annie
Mwahs xoxo

More stories of women going natural: I spent £18,000 on straightening treatments …until my hair fell out

Journalist warns of the dangers of using chemicals

Eva so lovely … journalist has ditched chemical straightening and weaves

WHEN Beyonce’s sister Solange Knowles chose to embrace her natural afro look she was branded unkempt and compared to a homeless person.

But the 26-year-old singer had tired of straightening her hair with chemical treatments which contain sodium hydroxide and can cause hair loss, scalp burns and scabs.

Go with the ‘fro … Beyonce’s sister Solange now and, right, before she embraced natural look

Here, journalist Eva Simpson tells how she spent £18,000 on treatments which burned her scalp and made large chunks of her hair fall out. She has now gone “natural” for the first time in years.

“Over the past 26 years, I have spent around £18,000 and many hundreds of hours at the hairdressers all in the pursuit of one thing — straight hair.

But this summer I decided I’d had enough of blow drying, toxic straightening and extensions imported from as far away as India and Peru.

So I have gone back to my roots and joined the natural hair trend that has swept America and is now taking hold in Britain. It is called “transitioning” and involves black women giving up their dependence on chemical straightening and embracing their natural, kinky curls.

Like many black women I know, I was barely out of primary school when I had my first chemical treatment. It was the mid 1980s, I was 12 and the look that was all the rage was the Jheri curl made popular by Michael Jackson in Thriller.

I wasn’t mad about the idea of putting chemicals on my head.

I heard it hurt like hell but I was in no position to protest.

I lived with my gran and two younger sisters and she was fed up of the amount of time it took to do our hair. So I was marched to a family friend who ran a hair salon from her front room.

Getting the Jheri curl effect was no easy task. First a softening cream made from a chemical called sodium thioglycolate was applied to loosen the tight afro curl, this was then washed out and followed by a hydrogen peroxide concoction used to set the size of the new curl around mini-rollers.

I knew it was going to hurt, but until the chemicals were applied I had no idea how much. It was agony.

My scalp felt as if it were on fire. I hoped it would be all worth it — but far from long, curly, luxurious locks like Jackson, I was left with a head of shrivelled up curls and a burnt scalp.

But that wasn’t the end of it. The hairdo had to be constantly sprayed with curl activator to stop it drying out and I had to sleep in a plastic cap to keep it lubricated at night.

---

Blister horror … Lukwesa Burak set up website to give hair advice

SKY News presenter Lukwesa Burak’s relaxant horror started when she was 16. Lukwesa, 37, says: “At the hairdresser’s, I was aware the relaxant was burning my head and when I got home I found blisters on my neck. My hair then started to fall out. If you use relaxants too often the hair will never grow back. I feel so strongly, I’ve set up a site, gidore.com, giving hair advice for black and mixed race girls.”

---

Four years later I was introduced to another chemical product which at the time really was a revelation.

It was called “relaxer” and was designed to make afro hair permanently straight. Relaxers work by changing the structure of curly hair.

The shape of a strand of hair is determined by the way in which the protein molecules, keratin, are held together. In curly hair, the strands are bent, and in straight hair they are straight.

The chemicals in relaxer break bonds that hold the keratin together. Lye relaxer is used by professional hairdressers because it works quickly.

But it contains the toxic ingredient sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, which is used to unblock sinks.

No-Lye relaxers are what most women with relaxed hair use at home. Although they don’t contain sodium hydroxide, they still contain strong alkalines.

Like the curly perm, it stank and burnt if I ignored instructions on how long to leave in the cream leaving me with scabs on my scalp, but I felt it was worth it.

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‘Versatile’ … Marianne Miles prefers her natural hair

PR consultant Marianne Miles, 35, from Stoke Newington, London, says: “When I was 12 I had a curly perm. It was a disaster. The hairdresser applied the perm cream over my relaxed hair. Most of my hair fell out so I cut off the rest. As an adult I had hair weaves without a break. Then in 2008 I ditched them altogether. I fell in love with the versatility of my curly hair – I can do so much with it.”

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Once relaxed there was no going back to having an afro even if you wanted too. Every six weeks roots had to be “retouched” hence its nickname of “creamy crack” — because you had to keep using it.

By having my hair relaxed in my late teens, I finally felt I was in control of the way I looked.

I no longer had to rely on my grandmother using the hot comb — a metal comb heated on the flames of a gas cooker and raked through my hair to make it straight.

In my 20s I fell for another hair invention from America — the weave.

Hair weave is a type of hair extension worn by black celebrities such as Beyonce, Kelly Rowland and Alesha Dixon.

The look is created by sewing or gluing strips of synthetic or human hair on to the wearer’s hair which has been twisted into cornrows — a style where the hair is braided closely to the scalp.

If the hair is human then it is most likely to have come from India, however these days an increasing amount is originating in Brazil and Peru.

On holiday in New York in 1998 with my best friend, getting our hair in weave was at the top of our list of things to do. It cost 100 dollars but was worth it.

I loved my instant new hairdo which fell to halfway down my back.

It made me feel grown up and more attractive — but it wasn’t without its problems. I would never ever let a boyfriend run his fingers through my hair in case he discovered the wefts and cornrows hidden beneath.

Once, when I was on holiday in Morocco with a boyfriend, I discovered to my horror that a strip of hair had fallen out and was lurking on the floor.

I flew across the room and on to the hair as if my life depended on it. On another occasion when I was working as a showbiz columnist I was left mortified when, during an interview with David Beckham, I hadn’t realised a strand of hair had become dislodged and was sitting on my shoulder.

Hair weaves fuelled a multi-billion global black hair care industry.

It also fuelled the debate, which continues to this day, about whether black women are trying to conform to a European standard of beauty.

I never saw it like that. My decisions were based on what was easier for me. I stopped relaxing when I was pregnant in 2004 assuming it was just as bad to use in pregnancy as it is to use hair dye.

Then, about a year ago, I became increasingly aware of the transition trend.

Its growth is supported by statistics from market researchers Mintel that revealed US sales of relaxer kits have fallen by almost a fifth in the past five years and women are starting to spend money on natural hair care products.

Some women transition by letting the relaxer grow out gradually, while others opt for what is called “the big chop” where they have all of their chemically straightened hair cut off and start all over.

I decided to give it a go earlier this year for a couple of reasons. First the price of hair extensions was getting more expensive. A packet of hair has gone up from around £15 to £50-60 and at least two packs are needed to do a full head.

Second, I couldn’t ignore the health concerns any longer.

A report published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in February suggested there was a link between relaxers and an increase in fibroids — non-cancerous tumours that grow around the womb — in black women.

So in June I joined the transition bandwagon. I went to the Purely Natural hair salon in east London wearing a wig and came out with my natural hair on display for the first time in 26 years.

The look is growing on me and thanks to YouTube I can access thousands of tutorials to help if I get stuck for style ideas.

The natural hair trend has already been embraced by celebrities.

At this year’s Oscars, Best Actress nominee Viola Davis dazzled when she debuted her TWA (teeny weeny afro) on the red carpet.

And Beyonce’s younger sister Solange Knowles, the movement’s unofficial poster girl, has earned plaudits for sporting her big afro at glitzy events.

One of the main things transitioning has taught me is that I have choice — and that I can have fun with my hair.

But I also no longer have to rely on chemicals or fake hair to look my best.

Whatever hair I have on my head, I am still the same person underneath.”

Hair chemical ruined my life

Devastated … Isabella’s hair will never grow back

ISABELLA BROEKHUIZEN, 45, has been a lecturer and model in the UK and is now studying social psychology in Holland, where she lives with her partner. She says:

“Like many mixed race women, I convinced myself I had to keep my curly hair straight to look my best.

“I went to a hairdresser, who put a chemical relaxant on my hair. As I sat there, I became aware of a burning and itching sensation. I was told this was normal.

“Three weeks later my scalp was still sore and I went to my GP. He said I had to go to hospital, where a scan revealed that the relaxant was still burning my head. The sodium hydroxide had burnt right through to the bone. A couple of months later, my hair started to fall out and within weeks I was completely bald.

“Quite simply, it ruined my life. I’d had a lucrative career as a model – that was all gone.

“I also changed from being an outgoing, happy person to someone who rarely left the house.

“I still have no hair and have to wear a wig – it will never grow back.

“I am often contacted by girls who’ve done the same thing all in the pursuit of straight hair. It breaks my heart to hear their stories. I wish I had realised these chemical relaxants are so toxic.”

Head horror … Isabella’s burnt scalp

Read more: 
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/4558990/Dangers-of-straightening-afro-hair-burned-scalp-and-bald-patches.html#ixzz27ko7GGsb

Oprah Rocks A More Natural Look

Oprah is rocking a more textured look in this months O mag. As the interest in rocking natural hair styles grows bigger so does the popularity in celebrity’s embracing it! And you do not get more popular then Oprah.

For the first time ever, Oprah’s appearing on the cover of O without blow-drying or straightening her hair. She says that wearing her hair naturally—as she often does on weekends and on vacation—makes her feel unencumbered. But there was a time when she wanted to just cut it all off. “I wanted to wear it close-cropped a la Camille Cosby but her husband Bill convinced me otherwise. ‘Don’t do it,’ he said. ‘You’ve got the wrong head shape and you’ll disappoint yourself.’ I took his advice,” she says. Although, never one to shy away from a style update, Winfrey is a firm believer that changing your hairstyle can change what we see and feel is possible. “I even notice a change in my dogs when they get their summer cuts: they’re friskier and livelier, feeling more themselves once the weight of the hair is released.”

After all the makeovers she’s done in O magazine and on TV, Oprah stands firm that the only makeovers that are maintained and sustained are “those in which something inside the receiver clicks, aligning with that which is being received. The only way to real transformation is through the mind.”

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/style/Oprahs-Natural-Hair-on-O-Magazine-September-2012–Oprahs-Real-Hair#ixzz22Ms8ZxTB

Found this post on chemicals in hair products… Thought i would share it with you guys.. x

I found this post written by Janet Singleton from the site http://www.thedefendersonline.com.

I found it very interesting indeed. Hope you all like it too.

Chris Rock’s documentary Good Hair caused bad feelings last summer for many black female film-goers, who felt more betrayed than they did fairly portrayed by the film. Lost in all of the earsplitting debates and viral blog posts, was any deeper discussion of the health implications for black women and girls who use hair straighteners.

Millions of black women have had the experience: You reach under the cabinet and take out the perm kit, its box graced by a picture of a fairytale-haired model. You spread the contents over your kitchen table, review the directions, and gingerly mix the activator into the cream compound.

After you are done slathering on the perm; waiting for it to take; shampooing; rinsing repeatedly; conditioning; and drying, you look down at the leftover “activated” emulsion, the crumpled plastic gloves, the drop of activator still lurking in its small bottle. And you feel that you are at the scene of a biohazard in your own home. So you discard the spoils of your cosmetic duties in a place where no cat or two-year-old can access the contamination, and mentally earmark the tainted mess for the next trip to the Dumpster.

If you have ever wondered about the safety of chemical hair straighteners, you are in tall-cotton company. In the last decade, scientists, academicians, and physicians have been pondering that suspicion, too. “My colleagues talk about relaxers possibly being correlated with hypertension and other diseases,” says Dina Strachan, MD, a dermatologist, who specializes in treating ethnic skin.

The doctor chooses not to relax her own hair, not because of medical suspicions, but a personal preference. “As a black woman, I didn’t feel it was very affirming,” she says.

Relaxer-related problems she encounters in her Manhattan office are not serious, though. “I see a lot of people with hair damage, but not skin damage, from straighteners,” she says. “One patient said her hair broke off in patches.” The possibility that more ominous conditions are related to relaxers “is definitely worth taking a look at,” Strachan says.

In 1997, scientists at Boston University and Howard University quietly began to do just that. As a part of the groundbreaking Black Women’s Health Study, a team headed by epidemiologist Lynn Rosenberg surveyed 59,000 African-American women over six years, looking for a link between relaxers and breast cancer, a disease that tends to manifest earlier in black females than in their white counterparts. The researchers found no increase in incidence of the disease among those participants who used chemical straighteners.

But Rosenberg, professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, said more study is needed because, “We haven’t closed the book on hair straighteners.”

BWHS also found no connection between straighteners and preterm birth among black mothers. Previously, a smaller study of North Carolina women, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, also discovered no tie, but some scientists still consider it an open question whether toxic chemicals may be absorbed through the scalp in sufficient amounts to increase the risk of various adverse health effects, including cancers.

LYE-ER, LIAR, HAIR ON FIRE

What has researchers looking askance at relaxers is that usually the key ingredient for do-it-yourself and salon-oriented relaxers is either sodium hydroxide or calcium hydroxide, powerful caustics that burn the scalp and possess the ability to melt metal. Sodium hydroxide—NaOH— is simply the chemical name for lye. Calcium hydroxide— Ca(OH)2— while not identical, is a next of kin. The latter has been replacing the former in popular brands. Calcium hydroxide and the slightly milder guanidine hydroxide have become more common on product labels in the last decade. Still, the begging-to-be-punned “no-lye” claims on the boxes are a matter of semantics, or maybe just outright lies.

Neither the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nor the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), nor the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) characterize lye as a cancer causer. Yet a web page of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a branch of DHHS,acknowledges “reports of cancer of the esophagus 15 to 40 years (after exposure), caused by corrosion induced by sodium hydroxide.”  These malignancies, it says, “were most likely the result of tissue destruction and scar formation rather than a direct carcinogenic action of sodium hydroxide itself.”

Though the study does not detail the circumstances of exposure to lye, it implies inhalation was a factor. “Off gassing of these products is dangerous,” says Leeann Brown, spokesperson for the Environmental Working Group, a consumer advocacy organization. “It’s not just a matter of direct application, but people sitting in well ventilated salons inhale fumes from relaxer chemicals.”

THE LADY DOTH PROTEST…

Manufacturers apparently try to counter sodium hydroxide’s tough-guy reputation by tagging their products with sweet names: “Soft,” “gentle,” and “lovely,” are words commonly used in relaxer titles. And for the political or health minded potential user, terms like: “Africa,” “organics,” “botanicals,” and “herbals.”

The claims of relaxers marketed for children seek to be even more reassuring. One product’s box shows two little girls with glistening straight hair and wide smiles and says it is the “world’s first and only” relaxer with ESP—“Extra Sensitive Protection.” And along with the usual chemicals, its ingredient list includes chamomile, olive oil, and St. John’s Wort, an herbal anti-depressant. Perhaps the manufacturers figure that the kid’s hair might be depressed after six years (its minimum age recommendation) of being kinky.

SAVING THE WORST FOR THE YOUNGEST

Yet children’s relaxers can be more caustic than ones made for adults, according the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, a web site created by the Environmental Working Group that ranks brands according to perceived health risks. The site assigns numbers one through ten to personal care products to indicate the level of hazard based on the chemicals contained and how the preparations will be used. Africa’s Best Kid’s Organics No-Lye Organic Conditioning Relaxer System with ScalpGuard receives a “10” for toxicity.

Leeann Brown, spokesperson for the EWG, says it’s not safe to apply any brand of chemical straightener to the head of a child.. “If straightening is started at a young age and done throughout life, it all adds up.”

Not all juvenile encounters with relaxers are cosmetic, though. Those are the ones that require a trip to the emergency room. “Ingestion of hair relaxer (by toddlers) has become increasingly common,” say the authors of a paper, written in the 90s, about children admitted for poisoning and mouth burns at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.

People underestimate the vulnerability of skin, says Andrew Ternay, University of Denver chemistry professor and author of The Language of Nightmares, a book about the use of chemicals in terrorism. “It is a living organ, not just an inert piece of something. There are materials capable of doing substantial damage to (your body) through it.”

LESS IS MORE

“Less is better,” Brown says. The way to be safer is to use fewer cosmetics, is EWG’s position. They are not alone in encouraging alternative approaches to personal care. Some cosmetologists are encouraging the return of heat-based press-and-curl styling, and beauty experts are proclaiming the virtues of using pure olive oil as a hair conditioner.

Commercial cosmetics can contain agents strong enough to affect even fetuses in the womb, says Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face: the Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. Her motto is “you can’t trust marketing claims.”

Ternay says that often consumers are wooed by appealing graphics on boxes and fail to read or understand the labeling. “The ladies don’t read the ingredients,” he says. On the other hand, product content listings can mislead buyers by listing the same or similar substance under different names, thus hiding the full amount of the ingredient in the cosmetic.

SAFE WHEN USED AS DIRECTED?

“The FDA is very frustrating,” Brown, of the EWG, says. Agency oversight of the cosmetic industry is nearsighted due to legal trapdoors that allow many product ingredients to go unlisted or masked by decoy names, she says.

FDA critics like Ralph Nader say the agency has been underfunded and de-fanged for years, and point to dangerous drugs and pet foods that have flooded the US market unopposed. “Sometimes US firms have to make safer versions of their cosmetics for European markets,” says Stephanie Hendricks of Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. “Legal requirements there are more stringent”

BLAME IT ON RIO…

But in 1995 the FDA did swoop down and confiscate two brands of relaxers. Consumers complained that Brazilian imports Rio Hair Naturalizer System and Rio Hair Naturalizer System with Color Enhancer not only caused burning, itching, and hair loss, it could turn hair green. Reportedly by 2004, up to nearly 2 million dollars worth of the product was destroyed, and it was taken off the market.

The effects the banned product created when it tried to “enhance” color may have been dramatic, but the combination of dye and straightening chemicals might do even worse damage than making your head look like Astroturf, Dr. Ternay says. Though beauticians traditionally recommend a two-week lag time between perm and dye applications to avoid hair breakage, a few newer products claim dye can be applied directly following a relaxer. “That’s scary,” he says. Procedures like washing and perming “sensitize” the scalp and makes it more absorbent, he says. “I’d be loath to have somebody treating my wife’s head with any sort of perm and then treating it with dye.”

CONDITIONERS: KILLING YOU SOFTLY…

But what usually follows a perm is a conditioner, and they are healthy and good for you and your hair, right? After all they have words in their names calling to mind life-saving procedures: “Therapy,” “emergency,” “renewal.” And of course there is the ever-popular “herbal” and “organic.”

Dr. Rosenberg, of Boston University, has concerns about conditioners. “Women who used products advertised as having animal placenta were shown to have a higher rate of breast cancer,” she says. Those brands contained hormones.

“Hormones are more easily absorbed into the skin,” Strachan says. She adds, though, that the skin on our heads is dense, causing decreased vulnerability to certain substances.

Estrogenic preparations are more likely aimed at African-American women, Malkan warns. They are marketed as remedies for “dry and damaged hair,” harmed from perms and other procedures.

TO DYE FOR

One potentially damaging practice for the hair of women of all races is coloring. But in the 70s scientists began to suspect that black coal tar hair dye could cause cancer. Extensive studies in the 80s and 90s of primarily Caucasian women in Europe and America, including one published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, that indicated those who used dark dye for 20 years or more had a four-fold increased incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, confirmed the suspicion. As a result, according to the FDA’s Koontz, the agency has incorporated the known risk of coal tar dye into the warning label requirements for cosmetics.”

WHO WAS THAT MASKED CHEMICAL?

You cannot, however, depend on the label to tell you if hormones lurk in conditioners and other cosmetics, Malkan says. “With some products you would not know without sending them to a laboratory.” She adds that “parabens,” preservatives commonly used in cosmetics, should be avoided because they are “hormone disrupters,” and they, too, may be associated with malignancies.

Another factor that dims transparency is the cloak of silence about where the whole kit and caboodle came from in the first place. More manufacturers are making their relaxer kits in whole or part in China. “Companies that distribute hair products may not know what is in the ones that are supplied by China, or from any country, for that matter,” Malkan says.

Relaxers have become citizens of the world. A product geared toward children hails from Britain. And the trail for owners of the “Africa’s Best” line leads to an non-contactable contact in Melbourne, Australia.

Nor does being in the United States necessarily make manufacturers more accessible. Despite this writer’s repeated requests for an interview, no representative from Revlon, makers of the Dark & Lovely line of relaxers, returned calls. The same non-response came from Johnson’s Products, makers of gentle treatment. Manufacturing origins are hardly the most important mystery, though. The safety of relaxers, themselves, is the bigger enigma. There are few studies and lingering questions. “We are just saying we don’t know,” says EWG’s Leeann Brown. “But we should know.”

Janet Singleton is an award-winning freelance journalist.

Extensions Documentary: Who’s hair are you wearing??

Hey guys,

Many of you may or may not know that I have been a natural for my whole life lol. But I was not really on a healthy hair journey until recently but here is something that I watched years ago that I feel some people may not of not seen. Note that this was before the good hair film .

A lot of us buy things and we do not associate the product we buy with the place that it has come from, or the way that it was sourced. We actively, although perhaps subconsciously, construct meaning according to our knowledge of the world and our experience in it. Building associations with concepts presented to us from advertisements, instead of actually knowing where and how it got to us in the first place. Please share this with as many women as you can.

The following documentary is Just a little food for thought.

Sonia

xoxo

Embarking On Our ‘Healthy Body’ Journey – 2 Month Fitness Challenge

Hey guys,

When we set off on our journey to achieving ‘healthy hair’ we also made the pledge that when we get to a stage of having good routines and in a comfortable place with our hair to move on to achieving our ‘healthy body’. Well, that time has come and the 2 month challenge is in full flow tomorrow the 12th of September 2011. We will be keeping diaries over the 2 months and will be letting you guys into our thoughts and routines through the lows & the highs, we will also be talking about the effects this healthy living may have on our hair also, noting the changes we see….

Next we have included the ways we are going to be achieving our healthy bodies as there is two of us we have different ways, times and routines.

Sonia

In my 2 month challenge I will be attending the gym at least 3 times a week, doing both fitness regimes and using the sauna and steam rooms. I want to build up my fitness and stamina. When I was younger I was very involved in sports such as badminton & football and always very good at these sports too. I am very slim but have a bit of a midsection after having two children and want to tone up, so my goal is not to loose weight but to start toning straight away and maybe build some muscle. Wish me luck as it has been a very long time since I have embarked on any proper fitness regime since leaving school!

Annie

I am very happy with my figure and constantly get compliments but I know how my stomach USED to be and would love to get back my flat washboard (light 6pack).
When I was younger I was involved in athletics and various other sports however, over time I have become very lazy and complacent.
My fitness regime will not strict as I do not particularly like anything that feels strenuous or feels to much like manual labour and pain. Lol
I do not want to lose weight at all as I love my african thighs and booty too much, I only want to tone and flatten my stomach.
To achieve this I will do a minimum of 100 situps a day along with some bicycle crunches, planks and side crunches. I will team this with skipping, a better diet, badminton and little touches like wearing heels shopping (toning the legs whilst not even realising it!  Lol)

Our first check in will be on the 18th of September 2011.

Let us know your experiences and if you would like to join us in this challenge.

1st Week Expectation

Reality

Lol we hope not but here we go…. 

xoxo

I Hate The Word ‘Nappy’

Yesterday morning I was down in sunny Brighton waiting to get my exclusive braids done.
I call then exclusive because it is the Ghanaian method of ‘zipping’ which only a few in the UK can do.
(I say a few but after researching, I literally only know of this woman who does it).

I will let you guys know how it turns out in a later blog!

Anyways, whilst waiting, I was asked by a young lady via my Blackberry Messenger what I meant by “Naturally Curly”. [in reference to our Facebook group 'Naturally Curly in the UK'.]
I explained to her that most individuals have curly hair in it’s natural wet state even if they were intricate tight curls as in an “afro”

She then answered that her hair is “nappy” because she is African.

I told her that her hair is not “nappy” and that it is a derogatory word.

This is what I wanted to get across to people…

I cannot stand words such as ‘nappy, kinky, kink, coarse, hard, tough’ etc
Such negative words constitute to the negative connations that black women/girls associate with their hair.
The history behind these words were never to glorify or celebrate ‘black’ hair, it was to label and set apart for other types of hair i.e Caucasian, Asian, Chinese aka ‘nice’ hair

Thus influencing females to want to change the texture, feel and look of their natural hair instead of embracing what God gave them.

I understand that people use such words to describe what their hair is, however, there are other words that can be used such as ‘thicker, fuller, tighter curls,’ etc.
With these descriptions, we can break away from the stereotypical words that we have been conditioned to use.

I believe that there is no such thing as ‘good’ hair or ‘bad’ hair only ‘healthy’ hair or ‘not so healthy hair’.

Treasured Tresses strives to change mindsets and provide knowledge and advice through this blog, our website and our consultations on how people can look after their hair and love what they have.
Hence our name, we want everyone to “Treasure their Tresses”.

Annie xoxo

Am I Going Mad Or Have I Been Shoulder Length Since Forever?

Hello Ladies,

We have had many questions and one in particular is about length! We all want long flowing tresses at the end of the day; thats what all the straightening, weave wearing and track gluing is for! But the issue for many is that their hair does not grow longer then shoulder length and if it does that must surely mean your either mixed with something or have ‘good hair’. But the truth is shoulder length hair is more commonly seen in those with textured relaxed hair and that  the 12 inch mark is usually the average length for most of us. 

If you are one of those people read on and if not read on anyway you can help a friend out and find information for your own healthy hair journey. Even if your hair exceeds this length it does not mean you are reaching your healthy hair potential!

If we want to defy the norm of 12 inches being the end of our hair length then we have to change our routine but honeys ‘this does not happen overnight’. If you only shampoo and condition your hair when you feel like it, dye your hair and use excessive heat this is the length you will be stuck with! Some of us even just totally neglect our hair and washing and conditioning is a myth and even the rain is a terrible culprit lol! But to achieve the longer tresses that you want you have to make a change in the way you see your hair.

Hair Damage

Our hair day to day even with the most carefully planned routine will come in contact with damage whether that be the strain of day to day styling, nutritional issues, chemical processes even aggressive combing can cause a problem. Accumulating information is the first step to change. Research.

Chemical Stress

Texturizers, Relaxers and permanent hair colours are BIG factors into why we do not go past 12 inches. Once chemicals have been on your hair it is almost certain that your pre hair structure cannot be regained as the structure is then changed forever when you use chemicals. From then on that hair is now damaged. The full extent of the damage greatly depends on how often the process is performed in conjunction with the stylists understanding and experience of the chemical alteration.

How much do you know about your relaxer?  Hair products? And the culprits that cause chemical damage?

Physical Manipulation

Another cause of damage to our hair is the physical pressure that we put on our hair with our day to day styling (excessive manipulation), improper handling of the hair & tension related styles. Even shampooing and condition in the wrong way can cause your hair to tangle. Heat is also a big issue for curly hair also the non stop brushing and wrapping the hair that is needed to acheive a straight style and braids that have been put in too tight can cause tension problems.  Even things deemed as really small like improper use of our hairbands can become a problem.  When you take out your hairband and see hair wrapped around it, that is  a no-no!! Something as simple as using a hairband that has no metal bit on it can stop this from being an issue!

There is also the environmental damage and nutritional/dietary requirements that we do not usually meet however this will be spoken about in a further post.

It all sounds very daunting but if a proper hair care regime is introduced these issues can be resolved and prevented. Even though there are some things we
cannot account for, we can actively stop some damaging factors which will make a big difference in the structure and overall look of your hair.

Take Care & start researching on your healthy hair journeys, be sure to keep your questions coming in too.

Sonia 

xoxo